The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-03-17
Five Hundred Years Hence.

The New York Star finds in q recent
remarkable address of DR.. Werner
Siemens, before the Congress Of natu'
ralists at Berlin, strong support Of
theories which have been looked upon
heretofore as dreams with which scien-
tifc men would have nothing to do, and,
Coming from such man." it says, the
picture which is presented of life five
hundred years from now Cannot be dis
missed with a smile IS too frantic fol
serious consideration"
DR.. Siemens is certainly not a dreamer,
or not dreamer only. He is one of an
illustrious family whose members have
been an honor to science; he has devoted
his life to practical as we'll as intellectual
pursuits; and for years has been the
leading spirit in an immense manufac'
turer's establishment. His prognostica'
tions, therefore, are interesting to his
contemporaries, however little interest
they may have in the very remote con.
dition of things 10 the future which is
held up to their view.
Reasoning from the history of the past
Dr.. Siemens believes that the great
incentives which help man to harness
the forces of nature will be more frequent
and more rapid in maturing than they
have been in the past. Within hun
dred years we have brought into use the
steam engine, the locomotive, the tele.
graph, the photograph, the perfecting
press, the telephone and the electric
dynamo, whose possibilities are simply
fabulous. Having achieved so much in
the last hundred years, DR.. Siemens
believes that we ought to do far more
than this in the next hundred years, and
give to mankind fully. score of inyen.
tions as valuable as those just mentioned.
He regards eachof these great inventions
as so many tools With which the man OF
the future-or of the present, for that
matter-may work. Having more
knowledge than our predecessors, and q
wonderful set Of tools of which they
knew nothing, there is no reason why we
should not achieve greater things than
they.
Arguing from this view of the matter,
DR.. Siemens has no hesitation in saying
that the workmen of the year $500 will
be able to provide himself with food,
clothing and shelter at an expenditure of
labor measured in minutes, where to clay
ID is measured in hours that is to sny,
instead of working ten hours day to
obtain the necessaries and some of che
Injuries of life, he will work ten minutes
a day. These genii of iron and steel
which science is to furnish him will do
far more than those dreamed of in che
Arabian Nights" they will work night
and day with power far beyond that Of
the steam engine of the present, and
with an intelligence of which we at pres.
ent have no conception. They will till
the ground, plant the crops, reap che
barvests, carry enormous loads to and fro
across the world, and do all this at a
cost infinitely small. Machinery will do
in hours the labor which now requires
years from thousands Of men. DR..
siemens, looking over the field, sees no
product necessary to thephysical comfort
of man which the wonderful machinery
of the future will not be equal to making
automatically. In that fal.off day the
power and the machines will be owned
by the State, and the citizens will share
in the wonderful benefits to be derived
from their use. When man needs but
few moments of actual labor day to
supply his needs, he will be able to de.
vote the greater part of his existence to
recreation and the cultivation of the
arts.
Incidentally Dr.. sieuaens touches upon
the very interesting problem of making
food arti6cially, combining the elements
of food from the raw material at hand,
without waiting for nature to do the
work in her slow manner. As corol-
larry of this theory will come the conden.
sation of food to such degree that the
man of the future will swallow pill
once or twice a day, and the words
breakfast, dinner and supper will become
mere genealogical curiosities, and forks
and spoons will be relegated to museums,
along with stone arrow.heads and prehis.
toric implements.
Of course, there are weak spots in this
theory, which every one will find for
himself. 1t might be argued, for in.
stance, that when the work of the world
comes to be relegated entirely to ma
chinery, mankind will be Kept as busy as
ever, making the machines, repairing
them, and keeping them in order. And,
even if it be claimed that this work, too,
will be performed by machinery, that
only involves more machines, and
the problem begins to partake Of
the difficulties of the infinite.
Moreover, when one or two pills shall
tske the place of tables groauing with
visnda, there will be no use in working
at all, as is shown in the experience Of
the inhabitants of tropical countries.
where the "pills" grow on trees already,
and are as large as cocoanuts and bananas.
and where, having these, the happy
natives learn to dispense even with
houses and clothes,
Another difficulty will present itself
readily to every thoughtful mind. The
machines and pills that are to accomplish
so much will be valuable, very valuable